China extracts rare earth minerals from living plant

This new method uses ‘hyperaccumulator’ plants to draw metals out of the soil. REPRESENTATION PIC/GETTY IMAGES

A Chinese-led team of scientists has made a world-first discovery, identifying a naturally formed mineral containing rare earth elements (REEs) inside a living plant. The researchers found nanoscale monazite, a valuable mineral, crystallised within the tissues of an evergreen fern named Blechnum orientale.

Monazite is a phosphate mineral rich in REEs such as cerium, lanthanum, and neodymium. These elements are critical for modern technology. The mineral itself is highly valued for its mechanical, physical, and thermal properties. It has a high melting point and offers resistance to corrosion and radiation damage, making it suitable for applications in coatings, lasers, light emitters, ionic conductors, and radioactive waste management.

Typically, monazite forms geologically under high pressure and at temperatures of hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit. The scientists noted that this study demonstrates plants can facilitate its mineralisation under ambient, Earth-surface conditions. The researchers used a process called ‘phytomining' - a green strategy that uses "hyperaccumulator" plants to extract metals from the ground.

These plants are capable of concentrating heavy metals in their tissues at levels hundreds to thousands of times higher than the surrounding soil. The strategy involves cultivating these plants on metal-rich soils and later recovering the target metals from the harvested biomass.

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